Rafael Nadal Wins Wimbledon 2010

In straight sets of 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 Rafael Nadal (ESP) beats Tomas Berdych (CZE). Tomas Berdych came into the Wimbledon finals with a winning streak against Andrey Golubev KAZ, Benjamin Becker GER, Denis Istomin UZB, Daniel Brands GER, and the memorable match against Roger Federer in the Semi-finals. Rafael Nadal didn’t have an easy road as he defeated Kei Nishikori JPN, Robin Haase NED, Philipp Petzschner GER (33), Paul-Henri Mathieu FRA, Robin Soderling SWE (6), and Andy Murray GBR (4) in the Semi-finals.
With Rafael Nadal, already the favorite with the British tennis fans, at the overwhelming top of his game this year Tomas Berdych will have to deal with the powerful groundstroke’s of Rafael Nadal. As we look back in a quick review of Rafael Nadal we see that in the First Round against Kei Nishikori (Japan) he wasted on time in defeating him; especially when this was the first Wimbledon match since winning the title in 2008. In the second round Nadal struggled a little winning against Robin Haase from the Netherlands due to the ferocious serving and returns. In the third round Nadal opened with a great looking first set, then Philipp Petzschner came back to take the next two sets to let Nadal know he wasn’t out of the running yet. Nadal responded in kindness with winning the last 2 sets to win against the German, only to met French player Paul-Henri Mathieu on the court and he beat him straight sets 6-4, 6-2, 6-2. When Nadal met with Robin Soderling of Sweden neither player was at their finest, but Nadal pulled the win out in a four set match. Nadal then meets British home town representative Andy Murray in the Semi-finals to place him in the Finals after a match that was not easy but not hard either.
Berdych‘s road to the finals was a little different. With his first round against Andrey Golubev of Kazakhastan Berdych feel a little short but recovered quickly to be victorious with a 12 aces in a two hour match play. Berdych met with Benjamin Becker of Germany to win in straight sets in the second round. Berdych struggled in the fourth round to beat Daniel Brands of Germany with a little struggle but nothing that Nadal couldn’t handle.
It’s when Berdych got to the Quarter finals and met with Novak Djokovic of Serbia did he come into his game and beat Novak Djokovic in a two hour and 18 minute match. Then he met Roger Federer the crowd favorite only to send Federer packing.
Rafael Nadal walked on to the court with a determination and came out victorious winning his second Wimbledon title. With this win Rafael Nadal has swept across the ATP World Tour since April of this year, winning 31 matches out of 32 matches. After the match Nadal stated, “It’s more than a dream for me. It was always my dream to play on this court and today, to play a fourth final for me was amazing. I couldn’t be here last year but this year I came back and to have this trophy in my hands is more than a dream.”
Berdych stated about his loss in the match, “It was a great two weeks for me, but he was very strong today. He’s showed in the last few months that he’s really the champion and he just deserved to win today.”
As it stands today, the 24 year old Rafael Nadal regained his #1 spot in the South African Airways 2010 ATP Rankings from Roger Federer after the French Open (Roland Garros) win last month, just succeeded to add 2000 points to his total. If that is not enough for the winner of Wimbledon 2010 he has also secured his place in the eight man field at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals being held in London on November 21 – 28, 2010. It will be interesting to watch how Rafael Nadal does at the US Open this year. 

By Andre Christopher Smith, 10 NIS 4 ALL

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